Two Newsgroup Questions

--



I have two questions about using newsgroups. The answers may be obvious to
you, but I am blind and use a screen reader , and I'mthinking thinking that
I'm missing something which would be obvious if I could just see the screen.

1.

How do I set my newsreader so that it says which messages are read and
unread.

2.

I inadvertently set one of my newsgroups so that it only shows messages
which I have posted. All the rest appear to have been deleted. How do I
reset the newsgroup so that I once again see all current messages?

Thank you for your help


"In Heaven, everything is fine;
you've got your good things and you've got mine.".

I'll answer the questions together. To show all messages, read and unread,
three menu commands are required:
View
Show or hide
Show all messages

Read and unread messages are only distinguished by the color of the
displayed header. Dark for unread, light for read. You can display unread
messages using three commands:
View
Show or hide
Hide read messages

In the situation where you accidentally displayed only message threads you
have posted, you can toggle this on and off using the key combination
Ctrl-H, or three menu commands:
View
Show or hide
Show replies to my messages

Repeating these three menu commands will toggle the display of your messages
on and off.

Is that helpful? Is there further instructions your require?


"William L. Houts " <> wrote in message
news:...
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> I have two questions about using newsgroups. The answers may be obvious
> to you, but I am blind and use a screen reader , and I'mthinking thinking
> that I'm missing something which would be obvious if I could just see the
> screen.
>
> 1.
>
> How do I set my newsreader so that it says which messages are read and
> unread.
>
> 2.
>
> I inadvertently set one of my newsgroups so that it only shows messages
> which I have posted. All the rest appear to have been deleted. How do I
> reset the newsgroup so that I once again see all current messages?
>
> Thank you for your help
>
>
> "In Heaven, everything is fine;
> you've got your good things and you've got mine.".

William,

> How do I set my newsreader so that it says which messages are read and
> unread.


I think it would probably be easier for you to find unread messages and then
if necessary put them in a thread context.

To do that you could either use a command to find one, e.g. Ctrl-u (Next
Unread) or change your view so that only unread messages are showing. E.g.
(with the version that you are using) that command would be Alt-V,V,H

To put a message you have just read in a thread context it would be
necessary not to contract threads, so use the Read option which says to
"always expand them" Alt-T,O,Ctrl-Tab,x (BTW I'm on a different version
now so I can't be clearer about those details). Then to see the unread
message (or, depending on whether you had the Preview pane open and allowed
a message to be marked read as a result, the just read message) you just
change your View to a more inclusive one, Show All Messages (Alt-V,V,Enter)
being the most inclusive one.

BTW it is possible to infer a message's Read/Unread state using the Actions
menu (I think it's that one in your version) provided your screen reader can
tell you which commands are available with it. E.g. if the current message
is Unread you will see a command which says to mark it read and if it is
already marked read you will see a command which says to mark it unread.
So perhaps you could use its keyboard shortcut as a signal? E.g. if
Alt-A,n is the command for marking it Unread (equivalently Menu, n)
perhaps you would get a beep if that command was not available? Nope. No
beep. Too bad. BTW the beta version does still have a right-click menu so
if your version's command accelerators are the same you could mark an unread
message read using Menu, k (Who knew? I always use Ctrl-Enter if
Ctrl-o hasn't done it.)


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---